Ancient Greece

The Greek Gods

Zeus:
Zeus is lord of the sky. His sacred animal is the eagle, and his wife was Hera.
He has a weapon called the 'Master Bolt'. Basically, it is a lightning bolt which he can use to make more lightning bolts strike things.
Posiden:
Posiden is lord of the sea. His sacred animal is the horse, because he made the first one out of sea foam.
Posiden's weapon is the trident, which he can use to make hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis.
Hades:
Hades is the lord of the underworld. He doesn't have a throne on Mount Olympus. The skulls and stuff wouldn't go with the decor.
His three-headed-dog (The underworld law enforcer) is Cerberus, and he has three ugly creatures called the furies, who enforce the fields of punishment - where bad souls go to be punished for eternity.
Hades's weapon is the Helmet of Darkness. When he wears it, he turns invisible, and you can't touch him. Hades literally becomes darkness. He can also radiate terror with the helmet. Enough, even, to make Zeus pale.
His wife is Persephone, Demeter's daughter.
Ares:
Ares is the god of war. Unlike the guy in the video game, God of War, Ares is the real thing.
He has awesome golden armor, and a spear that has an electric point. It might have been a gift from Daddy Sky God. Yep. Ares was the first son on Zues and Hera.
Ares's sacred animal is the vulture, because it cleans up after a battle.
When he goes to war, he rides a chariot pulled by fire-breathing horses. His usual charioteers are his sons: Phobios and Demios (Fear and Panic).
Apollo:
Apollo is the god of Music, Archery, prophecy and poetry. Hephaestus made him a golden bow, which he could use to shoot any mortal in the world from any distance. If someone in Italy said something Apollo didn't like, an invisible arrow hit that guy in the heart. Knowing Apollo could do this kept the Greeks on their toes!
His symbols are the bow and lyre.
Hermes:
Hermes had a lot on his plate. He was the god of travel, merchants, messengers, ambassadors, performers, herders, bandits, thieves, drifters, guiding dead souls to the underworld, commerce, languages, thievery, trickery, eloquent speaking, feasts, hospitality, guard dogs, birds of omen, gymnastics, athletic competitions and telling fortunes with dice.
Most of that has to do with roads. Because Hermes was the god of travel, he was the god of anybody who traveled. Good or bad.
He has a caduceus with snakes intertwined on it, instead of ribbons, and his sacred animals are the tortoise and the cow.
Hephaestus:
Hephaestus is the god of volcanoes (his roman name is Volcan - that's where we get 'volcano' from). He is also the god of fire and mechanics. He is crippled and ugly - a result of Hera throwing him of Mount Olympus when he was born. Typical Hera.
Even though he is crippled, he has great upper body strength. It comes from hammering of forges all day.
Dionysus:
Dionysus was originally a demigod son of Zues. He became a god because he created wine. Milk and water were pretty much the only drink you could get in Ancient Greece, and both could be bad for you. Water can get contaminated, and milk goes off. There were no fridges in those times.
Wine was awesome back then. You could change flavor by making it with different grapes, you could make it stronger or weaker by adding water, and you could keep it bottled up for years. It sometimes even tasted better if you kept it bottled up for years!
Hera:
Hera is the queen of the heavens. She is Zues's wife...and his sister...
Gross!
Her sacred animal is the cow, and she is really loyal. When she got married, unlike Zues, she took her vows seriously. She took terrible vengeance on Zues's girlfriends!
Hestia:
Hestia is the goddess of the hearth. According to the old stories, she was once an Olympian God. Apparently she gave up her throne so Dionysus could have it. Like a few other female Olympians, she was smart, and decided to be an eternal maiden.
Athena:
Athena is the goddess of wisdom, weaving, battle plans and craft. She is immortally scared of spiders, because of a contest she had with a mortal in weaving. The mortal was just as good as Athena, but Athena wasn’t happy about it. Athena turned the poor mortal into the first spider. That spider never forgot that fact, and ever since, Athena and her children have been haunted by the spider and its children.
Demeter:
Demeter is the goddess of grain - meaning wheat, barley, and all that other totally facinating stuff.
She carries a golden sword, which she mostly uses to cut wheat and whatnot, but she also can go into battle with it.
She was worshipped a lot in Ancient Greece, because she was pretty much the goddess of food. Nearly every food back then (and still now) had some sort of grain in it. Anyone who controlls food could bless you, or really, really harm you.
One dude, Erikisthon, once went to a tree grove sacred to Demeter for some wood to build a dining hall. Demeter found out and stopped him, and no trees were cut down. But, Erikisthon, from then on, could never have a full stomach. He was always hungry. He sold everything he owned to buy food, but he was never full.
As I said: Demeter can bless you, or harm you. Watch out!
Artemis:
Artemis is the goddess of the hunt. She has followers - The Hunters of Artemis - who are all maidens like her. She accepts any female - demigod, mortal, nymph, the works - as long as they vow never to marry. When they join, they become immortal. She hunts to feed herself and kill beasts that have terrorised others.
Aphrodite:
Aphrodite is goddess of love and beauty. She has a magic girdle that makes people fall in love with her whenever she wants them to. Usually after she make someone fall in love, she breaks their heart. She’s nice that way.
She has a son called Eros, who is later known as Cupid (No, he doesn't have wings and fly around in underwear).
Aphrodite's appearance changes with everyone that looks at her, showing their ideal woman.

How the gods influenced Greek life

The gods played key roles in Ancient Greece. Mostly, it included the numerous temples, sacrifices and such that took place in most Greek cities in day-to-day life. According to the myths, if some city insulted a god, or forgot to make an offering, they were punished greatly.
Case in point: There was once a royal family of a city in Greece. The Queen and King had 14 children, and the Queen was always bragging about them.
During one of the sacrificing and whatnot rituals to Leto, the titan mother of twins Artemis and Apollo, the Queen stated that Leto wasn't that great. Leto only had two kids. The Queen had fourteen.
Bad move!
Apollo and Artemis heard the insult, and came down to the city, bows ready.
In very little time, all fourteen royal kids were dead, arrows in their chests.
Apollo then froze the remaining citizens of the city. It was all too much for the King and Queen to take. They decided to jump off a cliff.
Nine days later, Zues took pity on the city. He unfroze the people, who buried the royal family, and elected new Kings and stuff.

In other words, the gods were cool to you if you were cool to them. If you weren't, things got nasty!